Yesterday (December 18) taking advantage of so beautiful light I obtained some photos of the Great Black-backed Gull who made Texas City Dike area as a part of its winter home. This one is so tame it probably would take food from hand; not that I tried as I am very against feeding wild birds (in most cases), especially gulls. One could take head portraits even with some point and shoot cameras. Roosting _http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/147933794_ (http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/147933794) _http://www.pbase.com/image/147933830_ (http://www.pbase.com/image/147933830) _http://www.pbase.com/image/147933831_ (http://www.pbase.com/image/147933831) Head shot _http://www.pbase.com/image/147933811_ (http://www.pbase.com/image/147933811) To study bill only small crop needed _http://www.pbase.com/image/147933813_ (http://www.pbase.com/image/147933813) On the wing _http://www.pbase.com/image/147933801_ (http://www.pbase.com/image/147933801) _http://www.pbase.com/image/147933834_ (http://www.pbase.com/image/147933834) Swimming _http://www.pbase.com/image/147933799_ (http://www.pbase.com/image/147933799) Agitated and calling _http://www.pbase.com/image/147933819_ (http://www.pbase.com/image/147933819) _http://www.pbase.com/image/147933822_ (http://www.pbase.com/image/147933822) Doing very well in Texas _http://www.pbase.com/image/147933804_ (http://www.pbase.com/image/147933804) BTW these who want to see key differences between GBBGs from Folletâs and TCD look not only for individual feather patterns but easy to notice wear stage of some feathers. When roosting tertials and coverts: _http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/147933791_ (http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/147933791) On the wing - tail feathers (white tips - gone in TCD gull tail) _http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/147933792_ (http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/147933792) BTW yesterday was a large gull conference call on Folletâs an TCD. I know that these birds are not an exiting subject here (my last two Thayerâs type gull posts did not provoke discussion; and also somewhere else one seagull got 5 different IDs - confusing, right?) so I did not process any photos yet of a few quite interesting gulls I photographed yesterday. Perhaps later, time permitted - eventually I will try to seek opinions as my USOs (unidentified seagull objects) folder is growing steadily. More TCD GBBG images: _http://www.pbase.com/mbb/great_blackbacked_gull__texas_city_dike_121812_ (http://www.pbase.com/mbb/great_blackbacked_gull__texas_city_dike_121812) Mark B Bartosik Houston, Texas _http://www.pbase.com/mbb/from_the_field_ (http://www.pbase.com/mbb/from_the_field) Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at //www.freelists.org/list/texbirds Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission from the List Owner
